{"id":3398,"date":"2014-08-26T22:40:34","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T12:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/?p=3398"},"modified":"2014-09-03T09:33:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T23:33:11","slug":"review-motorola-moto-e-moto-g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/reviews\/review-motorola-moto-e-moto-g\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Motorola Moto E and Moto G"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over the last year I’ve played with just about every flagship smart phone available. Each device had better specs than my day to day phone, a trusty iPhone 5. The Samsung Galaxy S5 had twice the RAM and a better processor, the Nokia 930 had a better screen and camera, the HTC One (M8) was just sexier in every way. Yet none of these flagships really excited me. Instead, the phone that I’ve fallen in love with is a mid range device from little old Motorola.<\/p>\n
The Moto Line Up<\/p>\n
Motorola have gone back to basics with their current line up, offering just three models of phone: good, better and best. Its a strategy I really appreciate, as the smartphone market is so damn crowded and confusing these days. The low end phone is the Moto E, the middle phone is the Moto G, and the flagship is the X – although even that is around $300 cheaper than most other flagships out there.<\/p>\n
And that’s what is so interesting about this line up. Even the high end comes with a mid-range price tag, and the bottom end, well\u00a0it’s cheap as hell and\u00a0still a damn fine phone. Sweetening the line up is Motorola’s clean Android experience, but more on that later.<\/p>\n
The phones have the same basic shape of 2011’s Samsung Nexus S. That’s not a bad thing; this is a great, comfortable design from an age before phablets, when android phones couldn’t comfortably fit in your hand.<\/p>\n
The plastic case is has a smooth, rubbery feel. It doesn’t feel cheap or slippery as some phones can, it feels like something designed to be held. Both the Moto E and G come with interchangeable plastic shells in a range of colours.<\/p>\n
Each device has a little dimple in the back, making it just that little bit easier to hold, and to tell the right side up in your pocket. It’s the little things.<\/p>\n
Motorola are cleverly keeping their Android experience as vanilla as possible. That means no bloat, the phone runs lean and mean. There are no hideous settings menus or notifications, and soon as Google release a new flavour of Android, you can expect to see an update for the Motorola. The Moto G is the Nexus mini I’ve been waiting for.<\/p>\n